ABRAHAM

The aleph on the cover is from an inscription on the sarcophagus of Eshmun'azar, King of Sidon at the end of the 5th or beginning of the 4th century B.C. Eshmun'azar's plea may be translated as follows: “I am snatched away before my time, a young man, an orphan, the son of a widow, and I lie within this sarcophagus which I have built. I beseech every royal person, every man: let no one open my bed and let no one search here for treasure for there is no treasure; let no one remove this sarcophagus in which I live, or build above me a chamber for second bed.”

From H.S. Williams, The History of the Art of Writing. London: Merrill & Baker, 1902.

Copyright © 1987 Colin Browne.

Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data

Browne, Colin, 1946-
    Abraham

Poems.
ISBN 0-919626-33-5

1. Abraham (Biblical patriarch) - Poetry.
I. Title.

PS8553.R69A72 1987    C811′.54    C87-094660-9
PR9199.3.B764A62 1987

Brick Books
Box 20081
431 Boler Road
London, Ontario
N6K 4G6
Canada

www.brickbooks.ca

For Susanna (Rosa nutkana)

Contents

The Boy

Caution, All Along (Amber)

Developer

Eleusis

4 Corners

Parallax

The Holy Land

My Mouth

Jerusalem (“… umbilicus terrae”)

— Wheel of Fortune

Links

Mother

Neighbour

Onan's Ear

Papa!

Quoit

Something Rose

The Street

Then Strength

Urgency

Vigia

Who

X

Your Arms

Das ist Charfreitags Zauber, Herr!

Colin Browne, DIARY (August 1961)

’Abhraham

’Ethan Ha-’Ezrachi

’Amanah

Heman

Chebhron

Yisra'el

Mo'abh

’En Gedi

’En Mishpat-Qadesh

’Emeq Ha-Melekh—’Emeq Shaweh

Zor, the harasser

El-Khalil

Father of a multitude

“In the beginning ’Abhram had control over only two hundred and forty-three limbs of his body, equalling the numerical value of his name. The full number of a man's limbs are, however, two hundred and forty-eight. ’Abhram was thus defective. After he fulfilled the precept of circumcision, an additional (=5) was given to this name. ’Abhraham thereby became a perfect man.”

David Mendel Harduf, Biblical Proper Names, 1979.

Abraham-man: “An Abraham-man is he that
walketh bare-armed and
bare-legged and fayneth
hymselfe mad.” (1561)

“Pretended maniacs.” (1813)
O.E.D.

bud, bloom, bine …

petals, sakura, shank's ash
flaked from bone

sown
       teeth

(he)

Heman, ’Abhraham, name torn
from our throats

spoor, spur                           sail

The Boy

Tilted, tiny swimming bird of a

     cap
a new moon
                     hinges

little stars
a yearning-seine: “Red Indians”
flushed cheeks, or fruit in wet grass (yellow)
orchards thudding, canvas and bannock sticks, avid boys

thin-spouted, pungent.

Says nothing.
Looking in he'd say (I says) he's on
the right, rechts

directions, lots

lenses reverse, bouleversent
BEAST's flip
is beauty: arnoumai

turns 999, spout envelops, kisser's carbuncular
the horn turns
on the loin

we bleat.

His jacket falls
open, my hand
guides you so far, his

feel your snout your heart made homicide
                          my heart
my snout

streets slick, snow capes dry hills
flakes

Christ don't you long like Meshach
for the furnace, some days

(my orchid)

Caution, All Along (Amber)

not indolence
and no scallop shell for this
it came, serenely

grace notes, terminable
sadly

when it takes you

when it refuses you

is believing
you've had it

that smile is not for
won't be
again

Developer

The salts have it, sunstruck
quickstuff à la Daguerre, a clangor of arms, lenticulations everywhere
of every ware, soup (emerald green)
and we forget then—coal oil—or Kamloops hills, the high road in from
Monty Creek.    Forget again.
                                                         Take this kid

his ears stick out
look, his eyes up here and do not appear
corners, can't see his
feet.

Gestures. Grain.

Invoke sheaved straw, ignite it!    Whoosh—sparks!
Make this a way of saying something
industrial, i.e. “neutralizing”: withdraw vertical control rods
or the simultaneous cessation of two insect likenesses in chewn Dentyne
called animals' hearts.

The frame: fringe
fires cold
a tallith & old coat, and another and another
these stern papas
capped in yarmulkes
your hand goes through walking into

his hand a white      blurred

this kid
old shorts, old pale his wrists stick out of
he is leaning in at you
me, that is
leaning in at
me.

Eleusis

and braking, owl bogs (to gaze at them) on the White Lake
Road, Ruth, Daphne & Herbert—Penticton bound.    “They're so